In the current issue of Empire – still in the shops, folks! – we've been celebrating cinema and gathered some movie memories from well-known filmmakers. Here, we're presenting uncut versions from three of our favourites.
First, up, JA Bayona shares his experience of seeing Richard Donner's Superman for the first time...
"The first memory of my life is a movie theater. I was three years old. It was the Urgel Cinema, a movie palace with a capacity for over 2,000 people and the largest screen in Barcelona. My parents took me to see Richard Donner’s Superman. The instant Christopher Reeve took flight and crossed the screen flying hit me in such a way my brain decided to keep a memory for the first time. My dad always tells me he turned to look at me just to enjoy my enthusiasm.
"Five years ago the curtains closed for the last time at the Urgel Cinema. It was devastating. I rented the theater and I screened Superman on its last day. On this occasion I took my parents to the movies. The son became the father and the father became the son, as Marlon Brando says in the movie. The instant Superman flies again for the first time, that same moment that I remembered from my childhood, I caught my dad looking at me to enjoy, once more, my awe and wonder. It was as if 40 years hadn’t passed by.
"In Spain being born translates as "giving light." In my case it just makes sense. It was the light projected on that cinema screen that ignited the collection of memories which make up my life."
Next up, here's Corin Hardy talking about a "controversy" surrounding a famous, future Oscar-winning thriller.
"It was June 1991 and I was 16 studying A-Level Art in Brighton and I was a massive horror fan. That morning on my way to college an article on the front of The Sun newspaper (I wasn’t a regular reader!) caught my eye. The Sun predicted that a new horror film called Silence Of The Lambs (dir Jonathan Demme) was so terrifying in its climax, that it would inadvertently cause the deaths of hundreds of people, specifically by heart attack, during the sequence when Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) blindly fumbles her way around (spoiler) Buffalo Bill’s lair, and is watched by the serial killer through his Night Vision goggles. They said that they had done tests and taken a number of people’s heart rates, including the journalist writing, and seen a major bump during this sequence, the results of which, were supposed analysed by a doctor, who warned that the film was so scary, that people could lose their lives. There was a diagram of the predicted 'curve' of the heart rate going from 'normal' to 'dead' and everything.
"Of course this only added to the reason why that lunch time, Dave and I bunked off college and headed down to Brighton Marina’s then the UGC (now Cineworld) on a hot day, to watch this dangerous movie. Thing is, as we watched and enjoyed this brilliant (and Oscar winning) new horror movie, my mind started to wander, or rather wonder, how I was going to cope with the climax… Was the Sun correct in its prediction that many people would have a heart attack in the final five minutes? And if so, could it be that one of them might be me?… How would I know if I was on the brink of such a thing, and would I be able to stop it if it was to happen? Should I lean over and whisper to Dave, "I think I’m having a heart attack" or would I even be able to..? This started to get to me as the climax approached.
"Once Clarice stepped into that basement and the lights went off, a strange thing happened. I started to feel my heart beating, no hear it even, in my head. I could actually hear it pounding louder and louder, and that was it - as we cut to Buffalo Bill’s night vison POV of oblivious and terrified Clarice, I could feel it creeping up on me, consuming me, this was fucking it. I was going to die! Any second now, my heart was going to stop, and I would be just one of the statistics of The Sun’s prediction, the sad and helpless victims of Silence Of The Lambs. Should I tell Dave? (I didn’t want to disturb him.) Should I stand and walk out before it claimed me? (But I don’t want to miss the ending.) This was more tricky that I had imagined. And then suddenly, thank god she was such a crack FBI agent, Clarice (spoiler) pulled that trigger and the lights came on and rather rapidly, I didn’t die, and instead, quietly tried to cover up my fear, with a good old fashioned, "haha, that was cool" as we strode out into the Brighton sunshine, and no one, including Dave, knew how close I had brushed with the Grim Reaper.
"Damn you The Sun, for your eternal lies. I still think about this and wonder, has anyone ever died during that sequence?
But, what a movie."
And finally, here's current Mission: Impossible maestro and legendary Empire Podcast guest Christopher McQuarrie, recounting... well, a collection of his memories.
"I’ll bet you $115,000 I can stay awake longer than you." "PUT IT IN THE BASKET, CHIEF." "WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL." "There was a demon that lived in the air..." "MERRY CHRISTMAS, BEDFORD FALLS." "What’s up, Doc?"
"Rosebud..."
Every home run in The Natural. Hiltz’s jump in The Great Escape, Roy Neary’s laugh in Close Encounters. The blood test in The Thing.
Indy’s entrance, Han’s return, Luke’s cool hand. The good, the bad, the ugly.
The taking of Pelham 123.
The conversation.
The verdict.
The sting.
Shane...
And Sophie’s choice."
To read more of the Celebration Of Cinema feature, pick up the current (Summer 2020) issue of Empire, in all good and evil newsagents right now. Or you can subscribe and get exclusive covers...